


After

by palacearcade



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s03e04 The Sauna Test, F/M, Gen, Mileven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 07:08:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20131360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palacearcade/pseuds/palacearcade
Summary: He loved her no matter what.





	After

She collapsed, and Mike felt like the world had gone with her.

There was a brief moment where he closed his eyes, unsure of what to do, as El stumbled back in a state of enervated defeat and tears underneath the incandescent flickers of electricity. She fell into him absentmindedly, his arms slipping under hers without question as he let go of a longing that he didn’t know was present until it’d left. He hadn’t wanted her to hit the ground, let alone meet the wall, on her own—certainly not when he was there.

After everything that’d happened, it was hard to process how she was still alive, how any of them were. Mike had watched the light collect in her eyes and then leave as a hand, perilously strong with inhuman blood coursing through its veins, clasped around her neck and forced the air from her lungs. He’d thought that she was going to save herself, as she always had, until she didn’t. Not until the gasps for air and pleas for it all to stop filled the room, until it was clear that the thing ahold of El wasn’t Billy Hargrove anymore—it was the Mind Flayer, alive with a gnawing need to kill, and it wanted _her_.

The rest had been a blur, left unregistered in his mind. The only thing Mike was aware of now was that she was okay. She was alive. Bruised, hurt, and shaken, but alive. Wide-eyed and disturbed himself, he wanted to tell her that he was sorry, that he was so, so sorry. Sorry that he didn’t have the strength to protect her when he should have, sorry that he’d come up with the stupid plan in the first place and put them in the danger that had followed and almost gotten her killed.

The lights threatened to go out overhead when she reached back for him, fingers uncurled. Searching. They brushed his freckled cheekbone. He wanted to reach up and grab them, let her know everything was going to be alright, that _nothing_ could hurt her, even though it wasn’t promised. But when he opened his mouth, heart pounding mercilessly at the inside of his chest, the only thing that came was—

_“Thank you.”_

It was a whisper, hardly caught by his own ears. Mike wondered briefly if she could even hear him at all, through the shock and the adrenaline.

_“Thank you,”_ he said again, and this time he pressed his lips gently to her left temple.

El started to move after that, and he realized that maybe the _I’m sorry_ could wait. She needed time. They both did. As for how much, he didn’t know. But what he did know—what he had always known, as a matter of fact—was that he loved her. He loved her no matter what.

Even if they were _technically_ broken up.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just something small I wrote, under 500 words, from a concept a friend shared on Twitter today. So, credits for this and dedication go to @80swheelah. She's really sweet, plus she tweets the saddest shit. I love her.


End file.
